Get rid of the new default 404 pages.

[slapshotw]

Put files called 404.shtml in the webroots (/public_html or the subdomain folder name), and fill with the content you want them to say.

[-S-]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

Put files called 404.shtml in the webroots (/public_html or the subdomain folder name), and fill with the content you want them to say.

Thanks for your reply. It would seem so, but unless I misunderstand when this Error Page should be displayed, oddly even though "my" 404.shtml page is now in "/public_html", and in all Subs, (with a simple Apache 404 message, at least until it works), the (silly) HG Error page is still being called up.

That's why I then tried the cPanel, but no luck there either. Ahhh, so very much to learn.....

[nielsencl]

I see this issue first appeared back in January, but I just discovered it tonight. At first I thought my site had been hacked. There was a nice looking 404 error page, nicer than the one I had, but instead of my Google search box there was someone ELSES!!! :-(

I first started adding custom 404's about a year ago and noticed that it gave me some nice added income when I did so. One one site especially I had a lot of changing content, and the 404 searches and clicks were considerable. But over the past several months I saw my overall income decline from Google and thought it was other issues like the quality of my sites.

When I talked to support tonight, they informed me that I needed to have some lines added to my htaccess file to make them work. They didn't seem to believe me when I explained that the 404s USED to work at Hostgator and they are still working on other reseller accounts(4) I have with other providers without those added lines.

I have now updated my htaccess files but I am VERY PISSED that the income that I had been earning was diverted to HostGator. If those pages had not had the Google search box like mine did, I would be resentful, but I would understand that it was a bad decision that stemed from the server upgrades that we have all been enjoying. but since HostGator has received funds that should have been ours, I think they need to seriously consider an apology and perhaps more.

In my opinion Hostgator should determind how much income was generated from those 404 pages and issue a credit to all of their customers for the period of time when the change was in place.

Failure to do so will send a message to all of us that I don't really think they want to send. I have no plans to leave HostGator over this issue at this point, but I now have to reconsider my plans for creating a second account here and I would not be able to recommend them to anyone else in the future (I'm not an affiliate, I just recommend good providers.).

Doing so would assure me that the feeling I had that Hostgator is a professional quality hosting company was accurate.

Thank you,
Chris Nielsen

[slapshotw]

Originally Posted by nielsencl

IBut since HostGator has received funds that should have been ours, I think they need to seriously consider an apology and perhaps more.

In my opinion Hostgator should determind how much income was generated from those 404 pages and issue a credit to all of their customers for the period of time when the change was in place.

This is ridiculous. If you were receiving so much money from those pages, and you noticed it going down, wouldn't the first thing you check be those pages? The *source* of the money?

The funds are not yours. They are Hostgator's. They are hostgator's servers that you lease space on. You are welcome to get a dedicated server where any money made will be yours. But you can't claim that HG isn't entitled to any of the money made on a box you lease space on. Especially when it's trivial to reverse what they did.

[nielsencl]

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

No, it is not rediculous. The 404 pages provided considerable EXTRA income, not the only income.

From your comment, you seem to think that I should turn over all my paid advertising space to Hostgator. Now who is rediculous?

It doesn't mater if the problem is "trivial". The point is that I had 404 error pages set up under my account the way "I" wanted them to be. I was given this option by hostgator and received no notice that it was to be changed.

I PAY hostgator for my reseller hosting account, and if they want to change the terms of that hosting, that is fine, IF I receive proper notification. As it is, the money my sites earn is mine and taking any of those funds could clearly be considered theft.

I don't think you would argue if Hostgator had modified all my sites pages and replaced my adsense code with theirs, would you? This situation is no different, except that it may or may not have been done without fully thinking through what they were doing.

My account was changed without my permission and I fully expect an official response from Hostgator and think that not just me, but ALL customers should share in the funds wrongfully gained by the replacement of our 404 error pages.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by nielsencl

I don't think you would argue if Hostgator had modified all my sites pages and replaced my adsense code with theirs, would you? This situation is no different, except that it may or may not have been done without fully thinking through what they were doing.

So your saying that HG went through all your webpages and changed the adsense code?

[nielsencl]

No, I used the word "if". This was to provide another way of looking at the situation.

[othellobloke]

He's saying the google ads that were on the new 404 pages that HG put up was the google ads for HG... NOT his own ones. So whenever people clicked on a google advertisement, they would be clicking on Hostgator's and NOT his.

I'd be pissed off at this too if I'd thought of it before. That's taking money that was his.

[J.Buesking]

It's a horrible thing to sneak in on us. I can't deal with all these changes etc. What's next? We don't even get an apology stating we messed up. In there eyes they did nothing wrong and that alone makes me wonder what to expect next?

Hell I had to put a support ticket in to upgrade my account. I was still using my regular allotment from back when I signed up...

Im sure the HG fanboy's don't see a problem but for us who use the service and don't hang out around here are pissed.

[nielsencl]

Well, as upset as I was yesterday, I will say that for the most part I have been satisfied with the service and support here. I don't know how big HG is now, but I know they have grown a lot. Almost any company has problems that stem from growth and they are no different.

I think the staff here should notify management and let them know, just in case they are interested in maintaining continued growth. It's not going to take much for them to turn this around and I hope that they are able to do the right thing.

[othellobloke]

I take back what I said regarding the error pages.

They're STILL up on some of our reseller domains. I want them taken down. How many times does someone have to protest before they'll be listened to? 13million dollars and you need the few extra cents from google ads and that shameless HG plug on the error pages?

Brent... why can't you take down the error pages with the 'hosted by hostgator' advertisement on it?

[J.Buesking]

Here's me recommending them before I found out and I just updated that I don't recommend them anymore. There's atleast a dozen forum threads on the net where I have suggested HG. As I come across them I will update them with my new recommendation.

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/s...d=1#post282058

Sad thing is I bet if You brought this up over at wht you would get an apology.

I'm past this hurdle but wonder what the future has in store. I can't look into my crystal ball and predict what server config HG will do next.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by J.Buesking

Sad thing is I bet if You brought this up over at wht you would get an apology.

It has already been brought up on WHT

[esl]

I don't like it, but I will just put up my custom ones again.

[othellobloke]

One of hostgator staff added this in webhostingtalk:

I'm not saying what we are doing is right or wrong simply giving our reasoning for doing it. If we put up ads that were in competition with the sites that would be a completely different thing then what we are doing as we would be stealing business.

But failed to realise the 'hosted by' ads ARE in competition with resellers.

[esl]

Originally Posted by othellobloke

One of hostgator staff added this in webhostingtalk:

But failed to realise the 'hosted by' ads ARE in competition with resellers.

That is interesting. Could you please post a link? Thanks.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by othellobloke

But failed to realise the 'hosted by' ads ARE in competition with resellers.

No! the hosted by part and HGlogo are only on shared accounts... the reseller servers have the ads and blue border only, no links to HG

[othellobloke]

Originally Posted by esl

That is interesting. Could you please post a link? Thanks.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...or+error+pages

Originally Posted by _Sam_

No! the hosted by part and HGlogo are only on shared accounts... the reseller servers have the ads and blue border only, no links to HG

At work we have clients who have quota's outside of what we offer through our reseller account, so we sign them up for a swamp/baby/ etc whatever type of hosting package.

I just don't get it why Hostgator won't just apologise, get rid of them and let the issue be put to rest once and for all.

People realise that companies make mistakes. I don't think it will hurt Hostgator in the long term if they just get rid of them. Is it the 30 seconds it takes to remove the relevant part in the skeleton thingy that's too much?



THIS is the type of error people should be getting: http://forums.hostgator.com/adsfasdfsdf

what's good for the goose should be good for me too.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by othellobloke

At work we have clients who have quota's outside of what we offer through our reseller account, so we sign them up for a swamp/baby/ etc whatever type of hosting package.

I didnt think you were aloud resell HG's shared packages

[Sam]

Originally Posted by othellobloke

THIS is the type of error people should be getting: http://forums.hostgator.com/adsfasdfsdf

Yes but everytime that is loaded it generates an error in the serverlogs, so on a shared server the logs will get big and slow down the server.

[othellobloke]

Upon further reading they did say this:

Let me apologize for saying cpanel's default 404 I meant to say apaches, and for those of you that aren't sure what the default looks like here it is... http://69.93.11.82/23003

Here is the one that is being displayed for only shared customers that choose not to use their own which takes seconds to do, or we'll even do it for them. http://gator2.hostgator.com/233223

The old one mentions hostgator as well, because hostgator.com is in the host name. So mentioning hostgator isn't anything new it's just more displayed now.

This is how I personally feel about the decision I made on behalf of hostgator to implement this.....

Most could care less, but some think it's wrong. Right or wrong the fact is that it only takes a few seconds to change to your own 404. We are talking about traffic that is being thrown away so there's no reason someone shouldn't profit from this, and I definitely wouldn't consider it stealing. I think we can all agree it's wrong to be wasteful. The real problem I see is that customers are paying for hosting already so why should we benefit from this without them opting in.
If the current trend continues we're set to profit about $60,000 in a years time off this. This may seem like a huge number, but for a company with over a 100 employees doing 13+ million a year it really isn't.

So here's the plan........

Any revenue the 404 page makes will be donated to a charity at the end of the year. Every year we will put a thread up in our forum and allow our customers to choose were the money earned from their 404 traffic should go. I just can't bare to see $60k thrown in the garbage when it can make a positive impact in some shape or form.

Whilst that does help to soothe my anger somewhat... I don't agree with some of it. I consider MOST charities OUTSIDE of most westernised countries in more need than those inside... and I wouldn't like it knowing that those charities wouldn't benefit and some 'Benevolent Order of Antelopes' charity somewhere in America would get it instead.

[J.Buesking]

Well after reading that entire thread I see Im beating a dead horse. I just signed up for another dedicated server from the planet to host me and my clients websites on that I manage. It's been fun HG but It's time for me to move on.

I guess this host only value's there reseller's and not some peon that just pays $15/monthly.

This is my last post here.

Thanks for the good times!

[esl]

Originally Posted by J.Buesking

Well after reading that entire thread I see Im beating a dead horse. I just signed up for another dedicated server from the planet to host me and my clients websites on that I manage. It's been fun HG but It's time for me to move on.

I guess this quality host only value's there reseller's and not some peon that just pays $15/monthly.

This is my last post here.

Thanks for the good times!

I am sorry to see you are leaving HostGator! Good bye.

[slapshotw]

Originally Posted by J.Buesking

Well after reading that entire thread I see Im beating a dead horse. I just signed up for another dedicated server from the planet to host me and my clients websites on that I manage. It's been fun HG but It's time for me to move on.

If you were on a dedicated here you didn't get the new 404s...so now you're moving to a dedicated, away from hostgator? When an HG dedicated wouldn't have them?

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

If you were on a dedicated here you didn't get the new 404s...so now you're moving to a dedicated, away from hostgator? When an HG dedicated wouldn't have them?

Matt, he also said:

I guess this host only value's there reseller's and not some peon that just pays $15/monthly.

So it sounds as if he was tending his and his clients' sites through a non-reseller, shared account.